[open-government] Checking out Loomio, helping out - an open source tool for collective decision-making, collaboration

Wed Mar 26 13:04:35 UTC 2014

I asked Ben for a short note I could forward about Loomio -
http://bit.ly/loomiodw - (a collective decision-making platform) and
their crowdfunding effort.

I just chipped in - http://love.loomio.org - and encourage you to do the same.

I also like that you can engage their user/developer community here:
http://bit.ly/loomiocommunity

As a huge open source fan in the democracy online space (we use
http://GroupServer.org *another* NZ-based open source platform),
Loomio seems to have some important momentum and some great people
involved. This includes requests for help from the Ukraine:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30022971/ukrainians-ask-coop-for-help

Not your typical start-up, Loomio is a worker owned co-op, which also
makes it an interesting case study.

Read on below.

Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org

From: Benjamin Knight <ben at loomio.org>

It's really hard to make decisions together online. Loomio is out to
change that, emerging from the Occupy movement with a mission to build
a tool that makes collective decision-making and democratic
collaboration easy and accessible.

Their prototype is now being used by thousands of groups in 72
countries, from civic movements and neighbourhood groups to city
councils and government departments.

Right now they're crowdfunding to build the full release of Loomio 1.0
- an inclusive tool with a mobile interface that makes it easy for
anyone, anywhere, to participate in decisions that affect them:

http://love.loomio.org

Loomio is built by a team of developers, facilitators and activists at
the Enspiral social change hub in New Zealand
Loomio is free and open-source software, licensed under AGPL 3
The software has been translated into 17 languages so far

Links:
http://love.loomio.org
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/meet-loomio-the-small-scale-decision-making-platform-with-the-biggest-ambitions/
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/23517/can-social-software-change-world-loomio-just-might
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24818/loomios-largest-project-yet
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/30022208/could-kiwi-code-play-a-role-in-crimea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vCL4I19o9U